The finalists of the Champions League will be determined this week when City, Real Madrid, Inter and A.C Milan play out their second legs.
On Tuesday night, the Milan clubs clash with Inter holding a 2 – 0 advantage from the first leg. The Milan derby is something of a throwback.
Twenty years ago, Italian teams regularly made the semi finals and finals of the Champions League. Inter are currently the last Italian side to win the Champions League, back in 2010.
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The dominant Premier League has usurped Serie A as Europe’s most prestigious league. Slightly ironically, Serie A has enjoyed a renaissance by becoming a playground for 2010s Premier League footballers.
Inter hold their advantage thanks to messrs Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Edin Dzeko, while Olivier Giroud started for Milan.
Inter are likely to progress to the final. Unfortunately for them, their opponents will be either Manchester City or Real Madrid.
City and Real Madrid played out an inhibited 1 – 1 draw at the Bernabeu last week. The Champions League is existential for both teams but for different reasons.
Madrid are the record winners of the competition, which has become their own personal history-making machine. City have never won it, and feel like they need to in order to legitimize themselves as a big club.
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On paper City should progress every time, but they’re up against the mysticism of Real Madrid seemingly always coming good. They’re also up against their own manager, who hasn’t won the competition since he managed Barcelona.
Guardiola’s reputation for overthinking the big moments is not unfounded, he has done so time and time again. However, now that he can play the greatest goalscorer in the game, he could settle for simply trying to score more goals than his opponents.
